Prayers of Brothers
on behalf of children and young people
At the start of a new day
God, Creator,
we thank you for the manifold
ways by which you till and water
each day the works of your
creation.
As seasons change and new needs
arise you rely on us and
empower us to become
co-creators with you.
Standing with our brothers in thirty countries
as you create this new millennium, help us
to respond in solidarity to the cries of the poor,
to live our Rule of Life with fidelity,
to impart our vocation to generous young men,
to renew our evangelizing mission, and
to integrate our identity as religious educators.
Your children are hungry this morning, Lord.
So many youths with empty hearts and hands
are hoping to find meaning and strength through us.
As this new day breaks, shine down on us
the sun of your renewing grace
that we might be for them heralds of your love.
Amen. (Rome 1995)
Springs (Rule of Life 115)
Lord, young people hunger and thirst
for love and education;
the young of all races, languages and nations,
the young of all social, moral, physical, and spiritual
conditions.
Take my heart, take my hands, take my entire being
for the service of these, your younger brothers and sisters.
Lord, help me to quench their thirst for love and for education
as you quench my thirst each day
at the springs of salvation. (Brother Mathieu Cabo, Senegal)
At the Window
Lord, may the apostolic zeal of Andre Coindre
challenge our indifference,
so that as we see so many needy youths and children
from the windows of our comfortable houses,
we may be a witness to them by our life.
Father, through your Son, we ask
that we like him may be pierced
by the pain and cries
of the young who are hoping for a full
and meaningful life. (Brother Felipe Albaina, Peru)
Faces
Lord God, we look at youth before us as we minister in your name:
A sea of faces?
the popular, the lonely
the creative, the bored
the confident, the insecure
the nurtured, the abused
the loved, the rejected.
In your bounty, open our hearts to see your face within each of them.
(Brother Donald Sukanek, New York)
Brothers
Heavenly Father,
help us to reach out in a special way
to those students in our schools
who live in homes that do not feel your presence,
whose family life has been destroyed
by internal violence,
or by substance abuse or alcoholism,
who live material poverty
or poverty of the lack of Christian values.
We ask you to give us strength
and a loving heart
so as to be Brothers to these students
as your Son Jesus is to us. (Brother Joseph Rocco, New York)
Simplicity
Lord, the young need you.
Help us to commit ourselves each day
to being your presence in their midst,
especially those who distance themselves.
May our contact with children and youth
help us to grow in the simplicity
you saw in them. (Brother Amalio Carmona, Colombia)
Desires
Lord!
May our students be open to the Christian education
we wish to give them.
May they discover in us what they need.
May they not be led by the standards of the world.
May they be stirred when they encounter the true image of Christ.
And may some of them follow the vocation of
the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.
(Brother Luis Maria Garcia, Spain)
Young Adults
Lord, I pray
for the young adults who?
often despite long studies?
find themselves without work
and feel suffocated by the clouds
which obscure their future.
With my brothers I want to be
touched by their disarray
and to seek with others
how to restore in them
hope and faith in what they are
and in what they can give to our society
for its renewal. (Brother Claude Dubreuil, Canada)
Love Unknown
Lord, I pray for those young people
who do not know how to love,
who do not know what love is,
since they have not yet experienced
genuine unconditional love.
May our hearts become sacred hearts
like yours
so that we may help them learn
what true love is. (Brother Paul Montero, New Orleans)
Stifled
Lord Jesus,
I pray for the young of Latin America and the Caribbean
who live and breathe a stifling urban culture.
May they find your message of liberation
embodied in religious Brotherhood
that is closer, warmer, more radical,
and more welcoming. (Brother Roberto DeLuca, Argentina)
Antennas
Lord, help us to find the places
where we can reach the young,
especially those in distress,
to exchange with them
a creative friendship of hope
and of a tomorrow full of freedom.
Give to our institute
to our provincial communities
and to our local communities
evangelical antennas
that will give us access
to the ways that will reach their hearts.
(Brother Maurice Ratte, Canada)
Relays
Lord Jesus,
you called Peter through his brother Andrew.
Grant us the courage to relay to the young, our brothers,
your call to the religious, priestly, and missionary life.
More than our spoken words,
may our entire life become an invitation for them
to commitment and to the gift of themselves.
(Brother Conrad Pelletier, Canada)
Questions
O young people,
why do you look at us that way?
What do you want from us,
Brothers of the Sacred Heart?
Those eyes, those faces reveal to us
hearts of fear, confusion
hunger, loss,
sadness, oppression,
injustice, grief, burdens.
O young people,
as your brothers what can we give you
that will console those eyes, those faces, those hearts?
(Brother George Poirier, Zambia)
Consolation
Lord,
we pray for the young people entrusted by you
to our care,
in particular those who have known trying times
in a country that has for so long
been put to the test.
Make us to them
messengers of consolation
in their hours of discouragement and insecurity.
(Brother Banis Synal, Haiti)
Contemplation
Jesus, our spirituality flows
from contemplating you and your open heart on the cross.
Our coat of arms gives us an image of that heart,
?which ?so loves the world??to gaze upon.
Teach us that as brothers both to you and to young people
contemplating your wounds and sufferings is not enough.
Teach us how to contemplate
the pains and cries inside the hearts of young people.
those who have been neglected, spiritually and materially,
those pierced by tattoo needles and crucified by failure,
youth for whom Christian images
are superficial emblems like brand names
rather than icons of deep inner, eternal realities.
Make the object of our spirituality
not only images of your Sacred Heart
but also your heart present in the hearts of the young.
Help us to contemplate the sacredness of their heart
as a way of preparing for our mission to them.
(Brother Bernard Couvillion, New Orleans)
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